A.J. Pierzynski ready to learn new pitching staff

BOSTON -- A.J. Pierzynski has just about 10 weeks to acquaint himself with the pitchers he'll be catching as the primary Red Sox backstop this season.

Brian MacPherson Journal Sports Writer brianmacp

BOSTON -- A.J. Pierzynski has just about 10 weeks to acquaint himself with the pitchers he'll be catching as the primary Red Sox backstop this season.

Pierzynski hadn't given the pitching staff too much thought in his first month after signing a one-year, $8.25 million contract to replace Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Meeting with reporters at The Jimmy Fund's "New Stars for Young Stars" event last weekend, Pierzynski said he expected to buckle down and study his new pitching staff once he returned to his Florida home this week.

Acquainting himself with an unfamiliar pitching staff is hardly new for Pierzynski, however. Pierzynski had to do the same thing in 2005 when he signed with the Chicago White Sox in 2005 and again when he signed with the Texas Rangers a year ago. He knows from experience that the real work won't begin until he gets to Fort Myers.

"It's hard until you actually get to spring training and sit down and get on the field with these guys," he said. "You can watch all the video and do all the talking, but until you're in the game situation, it's hard to actually figure stuff out."

Unlike a year ago when he had to learn almost an entirely new pitching staff, Pierzynski has a head start on his studies with the Red Sox. For one thing, he worked closely with Red Sox pitching coach Juan Nieves during the five years Nieves spent as bullpen coach in Chicago. For another, he's been behind the plate for Jake Peavy for almost 300 innings and almost 1,250 batters -- second only to Josh Bard, who caught Peavy from 2006-08 in San Diego.

Pierzynski has never caught John Lackey, but he's hit against Lackey 56 times -- more times than he'd hit against all of the Rangers starters he caught a year ago put together. He's faced Ryan Dempster 30 times, Jon Lester 21 times and Clay Buchholz 12 times.

In other words, even if he's only caught Peavy, he understands how most of the pitchers on the veteran Red Sox staff like to operate.

"With guys like Peavy and Dempster and Lackey, guys that I've known for a really long time, it shouldn't take that long because I have a pretty good idea how they like to pitch," he said.

And learning new pitchers is something every catcher does each February and March.

"Every year is different," he said. "I know that people say, 'Oh, you were with one organization for a long time,' but every year is different and every team has different parts. It's never the same thing going into spring training. It's an ever-changing process."

When Pierzynski reports to Fort Myers in early February, he'll be back in "Dunk City" for the first time since he was the 26-year-old starting catcher for the Minnesota Twins -- a year before he was traded to San Francisco for Boof Bonser, Francisco Liriano and Joe Nathan.

Pierzynski made his professional debut in Fort Myers in 1994 with the Twins' affiliate in the Gulf Coast League, and he played in 118 games for the Fort Myers Miracle in 1997. It was in Fort Myers that he first learned how to be a professional catcher.

"I remember when I was in A-ball in Fort Myers, I had a manager and he was like, 'You can hit all you want, but if you don't do this and do this you're not going to play,'" said Pierzynski, who hit .279 with 23 doubles in his season with the Miracle. "I remember he sat me for a couple days, and I was like, 'Wait, what happened here?' He's like, 'What we talked about earlier, you're not doing it.' We sat down and talked about it again, and we worked on it. It was kind of brought to my attention in that way."